And now is the time for the third article of the Handy Devices Revolution series! In the second article we talked about Arduino and Power Pwn; this time we will talk about a microcontroller from Texas Instruments, minicomputers, developmental boards, and simple boards that can be converted into a penetration testing device and for practicing your hardware hacking skills. So grab a mug of coffee and enjoy this third write-up.

MSP-EXP430G2 – MSP430 LaunchPad Value Line Development Tool

The MSP-EXP430G2 LaunchPad is a low-cost flash programmer and debugging tool from Texas Instruments wherein you can drop any 14- or 20-pin DIP MSP430 Value Line device and start coding your applications. You can download the free compilers and debuggers for flashing this board, namely Code Composer Studio and IAR Embedded Workbench Kickstart, from their official website. Both of these tools will install the necessary drivers for LaunchPad. The board itself has a built-in flash emulation for debugging and programming, 2xUser LEDs, power LED, user button, reset button, and a 10-pin header for external circuit connection.

This microcontroller includes a pre-programmed MSP430G2553 device. That’s why, when you plug this LaunchPad into your computer or laptop via the USB cable, a demo application can be activated or toggled by pressing the P1.3 button, which will start the temperature measurement mode. The varying brightness of the red and green LED lights will be your guide to the hotness and coldness of the temperature. Cool!!!

Other geeks are also addicted to building their own Launchpad-powered robot too, as explained by Texas Instruments developers, so you might want to join other LaunchPadders all over the world. How about building your very own surveillance robot? Well, the choice is yours!

This micro-controller costs $4.38 and includes free shipping if you order it online from their official e-store, which ships in about 48 to 72 hours.

In other words, it is a single board minicomputer on a dongle. This product is brought to you by FXI Technologies, a Norway-based hardware and software company.

Cotton Candy is tested to run on the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System, the Ubuntu Desktop Linux operating systems, and the BackTrack 5 ARM Version … oooh, another handy penetration testing device waiting to be unleashed. No need to worry about wires because this device connects to the network via WiFi, interfaces with any USB or Bluetooth peripherals, and takes control of any USB or HDMI device.

Now let’s get on with the device’s summarized specifications:

WiFi 802.11 b/g/n

1 GB DRAM + Up to 64 GB local storage

USB 2.0 male connector

HDMI 1.3a

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Quad-Core ARM ® Mali™ 400MP GPU

Dual core ARM ® Cortex ™ A9 1.2 GHz CPU

With the portability of this device, you don’t need a backpack if you ever plan on conducting some penetration tests on your neighbor’s house or apartment.

MK803

MK803 is a Mini PC (personal computer) that runs on Android 4.0 OS. It is powered by an ARM-based Amlogic SoC, which is a good choice for web surfing experience, gaming, programming and penetration testing by adding some arsenals and tools for analysis. It has an HDMI and USB port for you to plug into and then you can play with this minicomputer.

MK802 is another mini-PC that runs on Android 4.0 OS. It is powered with an Allwinner A10 1.0GHz Cortex-A8 + 500Hz GPU and is somewhat similar to the idea of MK802. This device can just be plugged directly into a HDMI input to unleash your casual desktop experience. If you are a geek, then you can start hacking this device, too, because it has support for booting up with Linux. You can also use your smartphone to interact and control this device by using the DroidMote remote control Android app and by installing the said app on your MK802 device.

Package contents: Both the Chinese and English version packages come with a MK802 device, a charger, an HDMI cable, a USB cable and a USB adapter.

Mini XplusTV Box H24

Mini XplusTV Box H24 is a mini-PC suited to be a media player that runs on Android 4.0 OS and is powered with Allwinner A10. It has an external wireless antenna which is ideal for wireless media streaming and internet access. (Hmmm … how about for wardriving? Hehe.) This device also has support for Linux and comes with a remote control for interaction.

Hackberry A10 Dev Board is an open ARM development board that has attracted a lot of geeks today because it is a hackable hardware kit, powered by the popular Allwinner A10 SOC combining an ARM Cortex A8 CPU and Mali400 GPU. This device comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but can be raped with Linux too.

Cubieboard is a low-cost, high-performance open ARM box that is also a hackable board and can be booted with Android, Ubuntu, and other Linux distributions. With the 96-pin expansion headers on the board, you can do a lot of things as far as your hacker imagination can take you, just as you can with other hackable development boards out there.

For this third article, we have talked mostly of the specifications of mini-computers or PCs that run on Android 4.0 and have support for various Linux ARM distributions. Some of these boxes are open and stripped which allows geeks to hack into the board in the same way that you dig into your Arduino board. The reason why I wrote the specifications of the boards that run on Android by default is to let you guys choose what device is ideal for your handy penetration testing and casual web surfing experience.

So what are the things you can install on the boards that run on Android? A lot! You can install dSploit, which is one of the coolest free Android penetration suites, terminal emulators, vulnerability assessment tools, and compilers. I know you guys are innovative thinkers, so I leave the rest to you. There will be a fourth article that will be posted soon and will tackle other boards and boxes so be sure to keep on coming back here to Infosec Institute.

Jay Turla is a security consultant. He is interested in Linux, OpenVMS, penetration testing, tools development and vulnerability assessment. He is one of the goons of ROOTCON (Philippine Hackers Conference). You can follow his tweets @shipcod3.

The latest BeagleBone, the BeagleBone Black, is more powerful than a Raspberry Pi, and just a little bit more. Runs Linux. Think it could be a more powerful platform for PenTesting then a RPi.

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